Two separate stories show how close we are to this collapse. While going to work over the week I was confronted by an unusual sight. It was quite early in the morning and in the new day sun a lady sat down on one of the main thorough fares of the city. She was dressed in typical business attire and was likely on her way to work. Instead she was sitting by the road, with her head in her hands as an apparent stranger attempted to comfort her. An ambulance arrived as I passed to tend to the woman.
The second story has a similar tone. This was related to me by a friend many months ago. While on a bus, my friend saw a man, again apparently heading to work have a similar breakdown. The man was hysterically crying as he sat alone on the bus. This must have been very awkward in such a public place for both the man and the other passengers on the bus.
The identification of 'awkwardness' as the main overriding pattern in these stories may seem callous. But that is the nature of our city and our society. The city is apparently created to make our lives easier. Perhaps this is a fallacy and the convenience of the city is really just a contrived method of allowing us to survive just enough. Going to work and engaging in numbing monotony is somewhat alleviated by how easily the city facilitates these patterns. Public transport allows us to turn our brains off and ignore our natural instinct to rebel against a grey existence.
These people that broke down in the city under this strain and they will certainly not be the last to do so.
-The English Student
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